Hook, Line, and Sinker
by Lucinda M. H. Cheshir
Summary: The first, at least as far as I can tell, Gill/Gil Moss fanfic. It pretty much sprang from what I experienced this year in high school. I have tagged it- and it shall be worked on more as time goes on, but don't expect too much from me.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer****: ****I ****do ****not ****own ****any ****of ****the ****Kim ****Possible ****characters****. ****Disney ****does****.**

Legumes were the reason I noticed her. That's right, I found the only person who even remotely understands me because of a few pathetic little peanuts. We were in maybe the fourth or fifth grade, at Camp Wannaweep for a summer. She had been eating this huge bag of unshelled peanuts all throughout the bus ride over to Camp Wannaweep, much to the obvious chagrin of the blond boy sitting next to her, and then at dinnertime, she asked the people around her if they wanted any peanuts. I, having forgotten to bring something edible from my cabin, cabin 3, took her up on the offer.

"I'll take them," I said. "I'm famished." She handed over the half-eaten bag of peanuts and invited me to sit with her and her friends.

"Hi," she said amiably. "I'm Finn Caraway. What's your name?" I smiled as I cracked open a peanut shell.

"It's Gil Moss. Thanks for the peanuts." I said as I began consuming the salted goods. She laughed. "What?" I asked, genuinely interested.

"Well, I'm Finn and you're Gil... Our names sound like a team of utterly cliche ichthyologists!" Her friends stared blankly at her, but I got her little joke.

"What's an icky-thylolo-jist?" One of them finally asked, butchering the word.

"It's a scientist who studies fish!" I frowned. It wasn't that hard of a word to say. Finn smiled appreciatively.

"Yep. It's what I want to be when I grow up. What about you, Gil?" I reached in the bag for another peanut.

"You totally took mine. I want to be an ichthyologist, too! Water is totally _my _element." I smirked.

"Oh, yeah? We'll just see about that, Gil. No one can out-swim me!" she challenged.

"Then you're due. Swim-off tomorrow at morning swim time?"

"You're on," she grinned.

The next morning, the morning that we were to get our schedules, I was pleased to discover that I had the morning swim time. I walked over to the lake to get a good look at it. It was completely green, but I told myself that the greenery was just algae. Boy, was I ever wrong. I was making my way over to the edge of the dock, to gauge the depth of the water, when someone in a blue sports bathing suit, with her dark hair pulled back into a ponytail ran right past me and cannonballed into the green water, creating an oddly small splash. After a few seconds of stupefied staring, I realized that the enthusiastic dark-haired girl was Finn.

"Hurry up!" She taunted, still grinning like the cheshire cat, "What are you, afraid of the water?" I watched her do a few backstrokes, teasing me, until I, too cannonballed into the murky lake. I felt exhilarated the second my feet made contact with the lake. I dove and surfaced, shaking the water out of my eyes in time to see Finn's friends come to the edge of the dock, looking squeamish.

"Finn! This water is disgusting!" one whined.

"Carrie, don't be such a squeeb! Jump in!" the girl named Carrie frowned, but jumped into the lake, holding her nose as she did so. The other campers followed suit. "Are you ready?" Finn asked me.

"For what?" I asked, temporarily distracted by the strange name that Finn had called her friend.

Finn rolled her eyes at me. "For the race, you squeeb!" she laughed. I smiled unmercifully back.

"You are _so_ gonna lose, Fins!" I jeered at her.

"Not likely!" she taunted back.

Finn won. She careened through the water as fast as a motorboat, while I tried my hardest to keep up with her. That proved to be nearly impossible. By the time I had managed to get to the far side of the lake, Finn was already back on the dock, drying her hair and getting green lake muck out of her goggles, which, like her swimsuit, were blue. When finally I managed to return to the dock, Finn was ready to taunt me some more.

"Had enough, Greengills?" she shouted over at me as I pulled myself onto the dock, belly first. I scowled. I hated to lose to a _girl_. "Guess water isn't exactly _your_ element anymore!" She laughed good-naturedly, but I didn't feel like joining in, so I continued my sulking. She rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out at me. "Don't be a squeeb, Greengills. That takes the fun out of everything!"

"Fine, Fins. We're going to have a rematch at the end of the summer. And I'm gonna win!" I challenged her.

"I'm up for that. But don't feel too bad when you lose, Greengills!" she laughed aloud, making me sulk again.

"No way Fins! I'm going to practice until I can beat you!" That only made Finn laugh even more.

"Why are you calling me Fins?" she asked.

"Why are _you_ calling me _Greengills_?" I retorted. She shrugged.

"Because you're calling me Fins." she said simply, raising her eyebrows at me.

That was the day I stayed at the lake at afternoon swim. That was the day that Ron, the blond kid who had sat by Finn on the bus, swapped me his swim time for my arts and crafts time, so I could obsessively train myself to swim quickly and efficiently. At dinner that evening, I sat by Finn again. Ron, the squeeb, was sitting alone a few tables away, poking at the strange camp food the counselors had given us, shivering. I watched as Finn stood up to go and talk to him.

"What's up?" she asked him. Curious, I listened in.

"M-m-m-monkey..." he stammered. Finn's mouth fell open.

"Oh my gosh! My big brother told me about the chimp, but I thought he was joking!" she gasped. "Is it really rabid?"

"I don't know what that means, but Bobo the chimp is seriously messed up!"

I scowled. There was something that bothered me about Finn talking to Ron,, but I didn't quite know what it was.

I wouldn't see Finn again for five years.

_Author__'__s__Notes__: __Finn__'__s __name __was __a __COMPLETE __accident__. __I __didn__'__t __notice __until __I __typed __the __names __back __to __back__, __and __I __burst __out __laughing __when __I __finally __realized __the __crazy __coincidence__. __Sometimes __I __can __be __a __little __slow__. __But, __since __I __like __the __name__, __Finn __shall __remain __as __Finn__. __In __other __news__, __it __annoys __me __that __fanfiction__.__net __doesn__'__t __have __a __tag __for __Gill__/__Gil__Moss__. __If __anyone __who __knows __how__/__has __the __power __to __add __a __tag__, __either __do __it __or __email __me __at __holly__429__gmail__.__com __Thank __you__! :)_


	2. Chapter 2

I was sulking. The squeeb, Ron, had foiled my attempts to turn him into a mutant, and now I was stuck in the Brookdale Mutations Lab. Dr. Lerkin, who admitted himself that he had only experimented on genetically altered rutabagas, kept asking me obnoxious questions about my past life, my life before I had mutated. It was annoying, and I had had enough of it! So, I was sulking. I was still in my mutated form, in a large tank of clean water. While I was kind of grateful, I knew I was going to miss the immense feeling of power that came with being a mutant. I swam a few laps, relishing the feeling of water rushing through my gills, when someone laughed from the viewing platform. I turned quickly.

"Well, you've gotten a bit better at swimming since we last met, haven't you?" A dark-haired, bespectacled girl in a white lab coat, a blue t-shirt, and jeans was grinning at me like an idiot.

"Do I know you, squeeb?" the girl raised her eyebrows in an oddly familiar expression.

"I see you've stolen my word," she said.

"_Your_ word? Fins? Is that you?" Suddenly, I was all too aware of my mutated voice, and how terrible it sounded. Finn laughed.

"You bet, Greengills! I do volunteer work here, and Dr. Lerkin said he was going to offer me an internship when I turn sixteen. It's fascinating work."

"I thought you wanted to be an ichthyologist?" I questioned her.

"Yeah, I haven't given up on that. But I needed service hours, and this place had open slots. Plus it pays interns pretty well, so I figure that I'll do this for four years, pile up a bit of money, and see if I can find other work as an ichthyologist."

"Oh," was all I could say. Finn had her life so neatly planned out. I had no idea what I was going to do when the mutation was reversed, let alone how I was going to get a job. My application was essentially ruined before it even existed by my being a rampaging mutant and terrorizing a squad of irate cheerleaders. "What am I going to do?" I asked her.

"After the mutation is reversed? Well, I expect that you'll go to high school, and try to be as normal as you can, under the circumstances. And as for service hours, I'm sure they'd let you volunteer here. You'll be great, I know it!" Finn smiled at me, a real smile full of warmth and concern for my well-being.

I smiled back, my fangs showing. "Thanks, Fins. Where are you going to school, by the way?" I watched her turn kind of pink, despite my fearsome appearance.

"Brookdale High. I'd better get back to work now. I don't get service credit for standing around!" I watched as Finn turned quickly around, her long ponytail swinging wildly as she did so. "I'll see you around!" she shouted over her shoulder as she walked through the far door, making room for Dr. Lerkin, who was entering.

"I see you've met Miss Caraway," he said. I frowned and crossed my arms. "Wonderful volunteer. She's really devoted! Anyways, let's see if we can't reverse that pesky mutation!"

"I know her already. I met her a long time ago, back at camp."

"That's nice," Dr. Lerkin said, not paying attention at all. He pulled out a small bottle that looked a lot like a cough medicine bottle.

"What is that?" I asked suspiciously.

"By my calculations, if you consume a tablespoon of this every twelve hours, it should reverse the mutations. Come here." I sighed and swam effortlessly over to him and surfaced.

"Fine." I opened my mouth and braced myself as Dr. Lerkin poured the vile substance down my throat. I gagged at the disgusting taste.

"Don't worry, it should start taking effect after a few doses. Until then, we'll keep working on improving your psychological standpoint."

"WHY?" I burst out. I was seriously ticked off.

"Fine, maybe not now. I'll send Miss Caraway back in. She's almost done for the day, anyway." I folded my arms and watched him leave. Seconds later, Finn came back in.

"Listen, Gil, I'm about to go home, but I'll see you tomorrow. Promise. But until then, won't you please listen to Dr. Lerkin? He really does know what's best for you." Finn checked her watch. "I have to go, my mom is going to be here any second. Promise you'll behave?" I had never seen her so serious before. I nodded.

"I promise, Fins. Maybe I'll see you at school. Dr. Lerkin was talking about sending me to Brookdale when I'm cured, so..." I trailed off. What was I doing? Finn was- Finn was an old camp buddy. Was I trying to hit on her? I wasn't sure. It felt weird, seeing Finn again after all these years. She had changed, and so had I. It may have been the mutation messing with my head, but somehow, I didn't think so.

"Thanks. I'll see you around, Greengills." Finn turned and swept out the door, pausing to wave back at me. Dr. Lerkin came back in.

"Sorry, Gilbert. I just forgot my bag-"

"Fine," I interrupted him.

"Excuse me?"

"I'll do your stupid psychological therapy." Dr. Lerkin clapped his hands together.

"Alrighty then! Let's get started!" My expression darkened as I wondered if taking Finn's advice had been a mistake.

A month later, I was back to normal. Well, almost. I still had a habit of walking around without any shoes on, but usually Dr. Lerkin, (who had decided to adopt me after he couldn't find my real parents,) noticed and made me put some sneakers on. As I had predicted, he enrolled me at Brookdale High School, the same school that Finn was attending. I wondered obsessively, right before my first day, if I was going to have any classes with her. As it turned out, I did. Since I was starting school in the middle of the year, I didn't have much time to wonder about such things, because Finn came with some of her friends and dragged me to Smarty Mart to buy school supplies. Her friends were all acting kind of silly about being seen in a Smarty Mart. Finn called them all "retail snobs," and one by one, they all left, leaving Finn and me alone in the convenience store.

"Okay, you're going to need some notebooks... are you taking a health class, or an art class?"

"Art. Dr. Lerkin says he's going to allow me to make up my health credit next summer."

"That's great! You'll need a sketchbook and some folders as well." The intercom clicked on. "Attention, smart shoppers! There's a sale on three-subject notebooks for the next thirty minutes, buy one, get one free!" Finn grabbed me by the arm.

"C'mon! They're in aisle eight, right next to the livestock section!" Not releasing her tight hold on my elbow, Finn steered me as fast as she possibly could towards aisle eight, where several people were already filling their carts with three-subject notebooks. Finn aggressively fought her way to the shelves, wresting six differently-coloured notebooks from the arms of some random shoppers. "To the check-out line! We've got to buy these now, or the deal won't hold!" Once more, Finn grabbed my elbow and we hurried through the crowds to the front of the store. In mere seconds, Finn was handing the notebooks to the clerk, and handed over a five-dollar bill. "You owe me three bucks," she told me. I shrugged.

"Whatever." Finn rolled her eyes at me again. I was getting used to it.

"Well, now for the rest of your school stuff."

A half-hour later, we had finished buying school supplies, and we were walking back to my house, with Finn tagging along because she was bored. When I poked fun at her for being bored on a Saturday, she explained why.

"My swim meet was canceled, I'm not working, my friends all disappeared, and now its starting to rain." She gestured widely at the cloudy sky. I looked up, in time for a drop of rain to fall into my eye.

"Gah!" I said, rubbing my eye in an attempt to get the acidic water out, but only succeeding in spreading it around. Two blocks away from my house, it started pouring. "Run!" I shouted over the uproar of the rain splattering on the pavement. I took Finn's hand in my free hand, and began running, trying to get out of the unpleasant rain before we got too wet. In slightly more than a minute, we reached my house, and banged through the side door, into the kitchen. I put the Smarty Mart bag on the floor and flipped the lightswitch to the on position. It didn't have any effect.

"Aw, man!" I complained. "The power's gone out!"

"That's not good. But at least it isn't winter. That would be really unpleasant. Be glad that it's only October." I looked back at Finn. She had walked over to the kitchen sink, and was leaning over it, twisting her hair in order to squeeze the water out of it. Somehow, the sight of Finn being sopping wet made my heart skip a beat. After a few seconds, she straightened up. "Do you have a towel? my hair is still soaking."

I realized that I had been holding my breath. I exhaled and said "Sure," and went upstairs to grab a couple of towels from the linen cupboard. "Here you go." I said, seconds later as I handed Finn a fluffy blue towel, drying my own hair on a threadbare green towel. I finished, my hair looking rather tousled, and let the green towel rest around my neck.

"Thanks," Finn said, and took her hair out of its customary ponytail. I watched Finn as she methodically scrubbed dry her long brown hair, completely unaware of the thoughts that were racing through my head. Crazy thoughts. Suddenly, I couldn't stand it any more, and I grabbed Finn by her shoulders. "What-?" she began, but I interrupted her. I kissed her. I saw her eyes widen, but Finn made no move of resistance. After more than a minute, Dr. Lerkin burst through the side door.

"I'm glad to see that you kids..." He started, but trailed off at the sight of us. "...made it back okay?" I released Finn and pulled back.

"I'm sorry," I said to both of them, but especially Finn. She was breathing quite heavily, and staring at me in quite a new way.

"That's okay, Greengills," she said, picking up the blue towel from where she had dropped it on the floor, and resuming the process of drying her hair, trying to pretend nothing had happened.


	3. Chapter 3

All the rest of the weekend, one question bothered me. It gnawed at my brain until I couldn't think of anything else. _Did __she __like __it__?_ I went to sleep Sunday night with the words haunting my mind. I decided that I would ask her Monday morning in world history, as we had that class and a few others together.

I woke up at 6:30 Monday morning to catch the bus to get to school. Stepping through the big double doors, I felt small. This was completely unfamiliar territory, uncharted waters, if you will. I got lost on the way to my locker, locker number 2509. Eventually I found it, and managed to get it open, and I went off in search of my world history class. On my way, I ran straight into someone. She looked a lot like Finn, only she was a lot shorter, and had much shorter hair.

"Sorry," I grunted mechanically.

"Are you lost?" the girl asked. She seemed nice enough.

"Actually, yeah, I am. Do you know where Mr. Green's classroom is?"

"Sure. He's in the hallway right below us. I'm running late for his class now, so c'mon! Oh, I'm Teaghan Caraway, by the way. Nice to meet you." Teaghan said, and hurried down the hall. I raced after her.

"I'm Gil. Are you related to someone named Finn?"

"Yeah, she's my cousin. Let's go down these stairs, it's less crowded," Teaghan wasted no time in herding me down a deserted staircase and towards a door directly across the hall. "Okay, if Mr. Green asks, I had to help you find your way here from across the school. Okay?"

"Gotcha," I said as I followed her through the door. At our entry, around twenty bright faces looked up from their note-taking.

"You're late, C-2!" The teacher, who I could only assume was Mr. Green, shouted at us. He pointed directly at me. "Who're you?" He asked.

"Oh, yeah. I'm Gil. I'm supposed to be in this class, aren't I?"

"Well, I don't know, _are_ you?" Apparently, sarcasm was one talent that Mr. Green had perfected.

"It's what my schedule here says. If it were wrong, then I'd be in trouble, wouldn't I?" This I said in the most sardonic manner I could muster. I had a feeling that Mr. Green didn't care if his students made wisecracks in his class.

"Sit down, then!" he shouted at Teaghan and me. We sat as Mr. Green began his lecture of the day. Art class and English class passed in much the same way, but with much more tolerable teachers. It wasn't until just before fourth hour, when I had biology, that I ran into trouble.

I was lost again. I had managed to find my locker and gone in search of Mr. Shoemaker's biology lab, but somehow I had worked my way around to the opposite side of the school, by the world languages hallway.

"Hey, kid," someone said from behind me. "You lost?" I turned to see a freckle-faced, dark-haired sophomore tapping me on the shoulder.

"Uh, yeah, actually.' I said. "I'm looking for Mr. Shoemaker's lab."

"Oh, Mr. Shoemaker! I had him last year. Good times, good times. If you go back to the main hallway, and go up the stairs, he's the first door on the right in the science hallway. Oh, and tell him Shawn Caraway says hi, will you?" I was nodding throughout his speech, but when Shawn told me his last name, I stopped. There was something nagging at my brain, something Finn had said years earlier.

"Are you Finn's older brother?" I asked.

"Yup. So you know my little sis, do you now? Are you Gil?"

"Yeah, I'm Gil Moss. Finn and I went to Camp Wannaweep for a summer-" I stopped as I observed Shawn shudder.

"Terrible, terrible place. Rabid chimpanzee... Anyway, I've heard a lot about you, Gil. Nice to finally meet you." Shawn turned and bounded down the deserted hallway. I headed back in the direction that I hoped was the main hallway, as per Shawn's instructions.

By the time I managed to reach Mr. Shoemaker's room, I was incredibly late.

"You must be the new student, Gilbert. Is that right?" Mr. Shoemaker said. I nodded in reply, scared to death that he was going to shout at me for being late. I had been lucky first hour, but I didn't want to be berated by another teacher who was not as laid-back as Mr. Green seemed to be. "Well, today the students are doing a lab activity in the back there. This class is the one that had an odd number of students, as a matter of fact, so I can just find the group of three and ask them if one would be your lab partner for the semester." Mr. Shoemaker walked me over to a group of three girls. "Teaghan, do you think you could work with Gilbert?" Teaghan looked up, looked at me, and nodded. I had been seeing her in all of my classes so far. It was pretty strange. What was also pretty strange was how quiet she was all the time. I set my books carefully down on the lab table.

"Hi T," I said. "What are we doing today?" Teaghan smiled when I called her T.

"We're just measuring pH levels of substances," she all but whispered.

"What was that? I couldn't hear you!" I really couldn't. Teaghan was too darned quiet.

"I said, we're measuring pH levels!" she shouted back at me. Teaghan stood up and showed me her lab write-up. She really was unusually small.

"Why are you so short?" I suddenly asked.

"Oh, they skipped me ahead a couple of grades. If they hadn't, I'd be in seventh grade right now. But, academically, I'm a ninth grader." I blinked, stunned into silence.

"Seventh grade? So you're what, twelve?" Teaghan nodded, apparently amused by my stupefication.

"As I said, I'm academically in the ninth grade. But the S.K.I.P. program is considering moving me up a few more grades." I shook my head, still not quite believing her. She shrugged. "Some people belong in a higher grade, some people belong in a lower grade. I tutor a sophomore who's like that. Complete idiot before I started teaching him, but he's improving. Slowly." Teaghan casually picked up a pair of forceps and dipped a tiny strip of litmus paper into a test tube with some clear solution in it. The little orange paper immediately turned bright red.

"That's a one," I said, quickly comparing it to the colour scale on the counter.

"Great. write it down while I measure out the others." Teaghan pushed her notebook with the lab write-up already halfway done towards me. A pencil was tucked into the metal spiral binding. I removed it, wrote 'HCl' in one column of the half-filled data table, and on the opposite side, under pH value, I wrote a one.

"There," I said, just as the bell rang. I jumped. Already my first day at Brookdale was halfway done.

"Lunch now!" Teaghan exclaimed cheerfully. "I'm hungry!"

"No way," I said, disbelieving once more. "I have lunch too!"

"Let me see your schedule," Teaghan said. I handed it over. Upon seeing it, she let out a derisive snort. "What'd they do, take my schedule and copy it over? You have exactly the same classes as I do!" Teaghan handed my schedule back.

"Really? that's weird. But now I have to find my locker again."

"Isn't it in the hallway above Green's room? That's right around the corner, come on!" Teaghan gathered up her books, snatched her pencil and notebook out of my hands, and exited. Quickly, in order not to be left behind, I followed suit, pelting after her while trying to avoid running into people clogging up the hallways. More than once, I almost tripped over my own feet. _Stupid __shoes__,_ I thought angrily, almost losing sight of Teaghan's diminutive form as she turned the corner. I followed, to find myself suddenly right next to my locker.

"Oh," I said, surprised at how quickly I had gotten to it, and I immediately busied myself with trying to remember the combination. Finally, I managed to get the dumb thing open, and I grabbed my paper lunch bag. "Hey, T!" I shouted down the hallway. "Wait up!" Knowing me, I would get lost trying to find the cafeteria. Teaghan waited patiently as I fought my way through the crowds of people.

"So, what's your favourite class so far?" she asked.

"I like bio. I mean, I did only show up for half the class, but Mr. Shoemaker seems really cool, as far as teachers go." Teaghan laughed.

"Ah, Mr. Shoemaker. Shawn told Finn and me such awesome stories... Shawn's my cousin, by the way."

"Yeah, I've met him. I got lost on the way to bio, remember?"

"Oh, right. But Shawn can do an absolutely hilarious impression of him! I mean, I can try, but you should know the basic story behind this one. So, last year, apparently, there was some error in the phonebook for the school, so it mixed up Mr. Shoemaker's exit number, and the offices', 'cause they're only one digit different, but anyway, people would call Mr. Shoemaker's number all the time, so he'd pick up, and the students would hear," here Teaghan cleared her throat and launched into a flawless impression of Mr. Shoemaker. "'Neville Shoemaker here. No, the office is seven seven zero zero,, my room is seven seven _seven_ zero, of course, you dial the extra zero but it doesn't go through, does it?'" I began to laugh harder than I had in a long time. Teaghan nodded, tears of mirth forming in her eyes. "I know, right?" she said, reverting back to her normal way of speaking. "Shawn can do a better impression, but mine isn't half bad." I had been doubled over in laughter, barely able to contain myself, but when Teaghan tried to discredit herself, I straightened up indignantly.

"Not half bad? Yours is perfect! It sounds exactly like him!"

"Whatever. Anyway, here's the cafeteria. I'd advise that you keep on bringing your lunch. For your own safety." Teaghan plopped herself down at the end of the table. Instantly, Shawn seemed to materialize out of nowhere next to her.

"Hey, little cuz! I see you've met Gil!" Teaghan rolled her eyes, looking remarkably like a certain cousin of hers. Shawn lowered his voice and sat himself down in the seat to the left of Teaghan's. "Where's Finn?" he asked quietly. "I know she has D lunch, too, so where..." Shawn trailed off as he scanned the cafeteria. "Of course." I saw Teaghan purse her lips.

"Again?" she asked him. I was very confused. I looked in the direction that Shawn and Teaghan were looking. It took me a few seconds, but I soon spotted Finn, sitting with two of her friends, Carrie and Meg I think their names were, and a really buff guy. Judging from the colour of his lanyard, he was a sophomore, like Shawn.I sat down across from Teaghan and her cousin, all of us still staring at Finn.

"Who's that squeeb hanging with Fins?" I asked them, my eyes never leaving Finn. Oh, great, now she was laughing! What were they talking about over there?

"Her _boyfriend_," Shawn spat contemptuously. I felt myself go pale.

"He also happens to be my student. You know, the one I was telling you about before? He's a complete jerk."

"_Jerk_ being the Teaghan-appropriate near synonym for his sort," Shawn amended Teaghan's statement. Teaghan nodded darkly in agreement.

"He makes Thursdays the absolute worst days on Earth."

"And he's on 'roids."

Teaghan frowned. "We can't prove that," she said. "Yet."

"Wait a second," I stopped them. I was even more confused now than before they had started explaining. "Why-?"

"He's the halfback on the sophomore's football team. And he's dated like, eighty girls already, beginning with all the cheerleaders. Finn wasn't part of the squad before, so now he's molesting her, too." Shawn explained. Then he smirked. "All of the cheerleaders, that is, except for my girl. She punched him in the nose when he tried to ask her out. But it looks as though my dear little sister is falling into his tangled web of lies." Shawn sighed. "Poor, misguided Finn. She's an excellent swimmer, a really bright kid, and is fairly good at cheerleading, when she has to, but she doesn't have a clue when it comes to who she should date. We're waiting for her to dump him so we can welcome her back into our clan." I raised an eyebrow.

"Your 'clan'?" I asked, my tone of voice saying enough. They both nodded.

"Yeah. Around eleven percent of the students here are or are related to the Caraways." Teaghan explained. "And it's a pretty big school." Shawn turned to give her a strange look.

"Only you would know that, cuz," he said with a crooked smile. I let out a short laugh, and looked back at where Finn was sitting, quite forgetting to eat my lunch.


	4. Chapter 4

I wondered what Finn was thinking over there at that table, what was so funny. I decided that I would try to talk to her after school, before I walked home. 5th and 6th hours passed lazily by as I stared out of the windows, vaguely noticing the rain streaming down them, but predominantly fantasizing how our conversation would play out. Seconds after the bell rang at 2:45, I stopped Teaghan to ask her something.

"Do you know where Fins would be? I have to ask her a question." Teaghan squinted suspiciously at me. Perhaps it had something to do with my daydreaming state of the afternoon.

"She'll be heading for the Natatorium. She's got swim practice after school on Mondays and Wednesdays." I nodded my thanks and set out to search for the Natatorium. Before long, I had steered myself into an area of the school that I hadn't seen before. I knew I was heading in the right direction, though, because I kept seeing signs pointing me towards the Natatorium. Soon after that, I saw Finn talking to another girl in the hall. I sprinted down the remaining length of the hallway, skidding to a halt at Finn's side.

"Hi Fins," I panted. Finn laughed awkwardly.

"Uh, Rosie, I think you should leave now. I'll be there in a minute." The redhead nodded and turned to enter the locker room. Finn watched her until the door swung shut, and then turned back to me. "What is it? Is this about Saturday? Because you should know that I have-"

"I know, I know, you already have a boyfriend. I just wanted to say that I'm sorry. I honestly didn't know what I was doing." What was I saying? This wasn't in my plan! "I really hope that we can still be friends?" What? No! Somebody please stop me! I didn't know what I was doing, nor why I was reacting in this way. Still, though, Finn smiled, and that lifted my spirits.

"Sure thing, Greengills." I smiled back at her, and stretched out my right hand towards her.

"Shake on it?" I said.

It was then, when I had my hand outstretched to shake Finn's, that Finn's friend Rosie came back into the hallway, with several other members of the swim team. Finn quickly withdrew her hand, and I followed suit.

"Swim meet's been cancelled again," Rosie said gloomily. "Coach has strep throat or something."

"Oh, man! Now I've got to walk home in the rain!" Finn stuffed her hands into her pockets and scuffed the tile floor of the hallway with her shoe, making an interesting sound. "I'm gonna be soaking wet!" she complained, and then shrugged, as if it didn't really matter.

"Here," I said, for some reason hoping that this would be viewed as a friendly gesture, "take my umbrella. I'm taking the bus anyway." Finn shook her head.

"No, I'll be fine," she said as she walked through the door at the end of the hall, surrendering herself to the violent tempest outside. I sighed and followed her out, unfolding my umbrella as I did so. I walked until I was beyond eyeshot from indoors, and then I turned back. I watched Finn until she climbed over a chain-link fence and vanished into a copse of trees. I shook my head and sighed one more time, and then I headed for the bus stop.

As it turned out, I had managed to miss the bus, albeit by only a few seconds. The Lerkins didn't live very far away from school, so I could technically walk, I just had to be willing to get soaked and muddy in the process. When I reached the threshold of the Lerkin's household, Mrs. Lerkin was waiting for me. I didn't tend to see her that often, mostly because she worked nights as a teacher in the night school, but today night school seemed to be cancelled because of the raging storm outside.

"You're sopping wet, Gilbert. And muddy, too." she told me stiffly.

"I know, ma'am." I replied. I still wasn't quite sure what to call Dr. and Mrs. Lerkin, so I always reverted to the ever-useful sir-and-ma'am-tactic. As she hadn't told me to call her anything otherwise, I assumed that Mrs. Lerkin didn't mind being called ma'am.

"Well, go change your clothes and wash up. Dinner's almost ready." I nodded and obeyed docily.

The next day, I didn't feel great, but Dr. and Mrs. Lerkin forced me to go to school anyway. The first thing I noticed in World History was that Finn was absent. I asked Teaghan if she knew anything of Finn's whereabouts, but Teaghan had no idea. So I had to wait and interview Shawn at lunchtime.

"Where's Fins?" I asked him, a morning of pent-up curiosity escaping with those two words.

"What do I look like, her social secretary?" Shawn retorted indignantly. I just continued staring at him expectantly. "Fine. She's got laryngitis. The kid can barely even whisper. Annalise says that she probably won't recover until well after Thanksgiving. And guess who gets to carry all her homework to her? That's right; me, that's who." I shook my head disapprovingly.

"I told her to take my umbrella," I said. Teaghan nodded.

"Yeah, that's señorita sabelotodos for you." I gave Teaghan a look.

"You're one to talk," I said. Teaghan shrugged.

"I am a prodigy. Not a know-it-all. There's a difference. But anyway- Hey, Shawn, isn't that Halle over there?" Teaghan pointed across the cafeteria at a blond-haired girl in a cheerleader's uniform who was making her way quickly towards us. Shawn twisted around in his seat to see.

"Why yes it is! Halle!" Shawn got up and escorted Halle the few yards back to our table. "Halle, this is my cousin Teaghan and our friend Gil. Gil and Teaghan, this is my girlfriend Halle. She's the one who gave Kurt the moron the broken nose he so ardently deserved."

"Yeah, Shawn? You do realize that you're misusing the adverb 'ardently?'" Shawn gave his cousin a withering look.

"You know what I mean." He said. Then, turning to his girlfriend, he began a new conversation. "So, Halle, what brings you to D lunch?"

"Hm? Oh, they transferred me out of my math class into a different one. I'm glad, aren't you?" Halle was a very cheery person with a strong Norwegian accent. It was hard to imagine her punching anyone in the face, even Kurt the moron.

"I think that it almost goes without saying that I'm glad, but I'll say it anyway 'cause I like saying it. I'M GLAD! There, now you know. I- Oh, look at him! That's just disgusting!" Shawn interrupted himself in order to point over to Kurt's table, where he seemed to be entertaining Finn's friend Carrie by making out with her. We all twisted around in our seats to see. After a few seconds, I turned around again, sickened. This guy did not deserve Finn, at all.

"He deserves much more than merely a broken nose." Halle commented blandly.

"I think that he should be treated as Westley threatens to treat Humperdinck in the movie of _The __Princess __Bride_. You know, with the cutting off of hands, feet, eyes, tongue, etc., but leaving the ears so that every disgusted cry will echo in his perfect ears... Perhaps I'm being a bit too graphic, but that's just my opinion." Teaghan contributed. I privately agreed with her, but I was just a bit too ashamed to admit it. Not too much, though. Finn deserved better than that scumbag.

"Now, the question is, do I tell her later today, or let her find out for herself? And which one will break her heart so much that she can't help but give it to him the way he so richly deserves it." Shawn mused. I sort of half-smiled, not exactly sure if he was being serious or just joking. Even known him for only a couple of days, I got the feeling that it would be hard to tell.

"I vote you tell her today. The faster she gets over that jerk and her quote-on-quote 'friends,' the faster that we can accept her back into the fold." Halle said decisively. Teaghan and I nodded in agreement.

"Very well, the board has decided unanimously that I shall tell my little sister how much of a di-" Shawn broke off, glanced at Teaghan, and amended his wording. "*ahem* a _jerk_ her boyfriend is."

I nodded, stole another disgusted glance over to where Kurt and Carrie still remained, seemingly locked at the lips, and finally began to eat my lunch.

A few days later, Finn was back at school. She still looked kind of ill, with a little bit of a raspy voice every time she spoke. Not that she spoke to me at all. At lunch, I learned that she was also refusing to talk to Teaghan and Shawn as well.

"She wouldn't speak to me, either," Halle announced, "if I had tried yet today. I guess we'll see how that goes at cheer practice later."

I nodded. "Good luck, Halle. Shawn, do you have any idea what this whole ignoring business is all about?" I turned to Shawn, and he fiddled nervously with the cuff of his sleeve, unbuttoning it and buttoning it again.

Teaghan got a funny look in her eye, and also stared at Shawn. "Shawnie," she said, squinting dangerously at him. "Does this have something to do with you?"

Shawn fidgeted uncomfortably, and didn't give a straight answer. "Er... it might," he said, tugging at the collar of his button-down shirt. I raised an eyebrow at him, a technique that I'd discovered worked wonders on Mr. Green whenever he was trying to slip us a lie in hopes of screwing up our test scores. Whenever that happened, which in only a few days, had been about ten times, I had snuck a look at Teaghan, saw her expression, and gave him the eyebrow. Mr. Green would always fess up, although usually he tried to play it cool and laugh it off.

The eyebrow worked almost the same way on Shawn now, except Shawn didn't play it cool. First, his eyes crossed, maybe in the hopes that it would ruin my serious face, but it did him no good. Finally, Shawn sighed and came clean.

"Fine. It is kinda my fault. I suppose that I sounded a little bit too gleeful when I told her what happened between Kurt and Carrie the other day. Obviously, she didn't believe me and thought that just because of my long-standing hatred for him, that I'd make something up just to get her to dump him. Imagine, me, her own brother, lie to her about this!"

I raised my other eyebrow. "And of course, you mentioned that T, Halle, and I were with you at the time. Nice going, Shawn."

"Real nice going." Teaghan agreed darkly. Shawn was edging his chair away, evidently fearful of what we might do to him, when the bell rang. With a sigh of relief, Shawn jumped up and vanished into the surge of students heading down the hall. I sighed, shrugged, and followed suit, heading for algebra class.

Algebra 2 was one of three classes that Teaghan, Finn and I had together. Although Teaghan had already taught herself most of the material, she told me that she and her parents had lost the battle to get her put in pre-calculus, so Teaghan was stuck with us non-super-geniuses in algebra 2.

As luck would have it, I sat directly behind Finn, so, in addition to being able to copy her answers when I got really stuck on a problem, I could whisper to her quite easily whenever I wanted without Ms. Chen, the algebra teacher, noticing. As soon as Ms. Chen began her lecture- something about factoring, I think- I leaned forward in my seat to talk to Finn.

"Fins!" I whispered until I got her attention.

"What?" she hissed back angrily.

I had no idea what I was going to say, but suddenly words seemed to come out of my mouth without my having any control over them. "We're all really sorry about what Shawn told you, but it's true, Fins! I don't want to see you get hurt, and neither do any of the others! I was there. I swear, everything that Shawn told you was true!"

Finn stole a glance back at me, and raised her eyebrows heavenwards. "Tell you what, Greengills." she muttered to me. "Talk to you after school's out. Meet me at door eight at 3."

Finn turned back around, effectively ending the whispered conversation, and I couldn't help but grin, feeling victorious beyond measure.


End file.
